Blessing Curse (Curse of Blessing)
42. Protector

The union of two very different energies in my body, what happened to me.

Slowly my eyes opened, but my vision was faint.

"Where am I?" I muttered when I realized I was in a foreign place.

"My head! ahhhh!!!" my head is throbbing, it's very painful.

Slowly I tried to get up from my sleep and began to observe around. But the pain in my head did not go away.

"I woke up in a strange place again. huhhhh.." I muttered as I began to calm myself down.

A wooden hut that looked so old, even the wood seemed to have been weathered. Even so, this building looks quite sturdy.

"Where else am I.." I sighed as I left a small room containing only a wooden bed and jug on a wooden table.

"I'm so thirsty, is the jug safe?"

I don't know how long I've slept here, until my throat feels so dry.

To hell with prejudice, I'm already so thirsty.

Without thinking much, I took the jug and chugged it quickly.

"Gluk. gluck... gluckk.

I can't believe with just this drink I feel the happiness of a lifetime.

"You have drunk my poison, young man..."

My eyes widened after hearing someone put poison on the drink I had just drunk.

Quickly the jug that was in my hand fell and broke. I held my neck which was starting to hurt.

"Akkhhhhh....!!!" I can't make a sound! my neck is "uhukkk!!!" I can't spit it out either! what'sthis?! why does it feel like you're suffocating!

My skin! when I saw my arms, I saw my skin turning blue, I was poisoned! why is my body being beaten? aaakkh!!! so sick!

"T-ttolong-hhaakkk-- help me!!" god, this is so painful! my neck is getting choked up, it's impossible for me to survive!

"Ohhhhkk!!" whether this is the end of my life, my life feels like leaving my body.

Everything's dark! help me, anybody! Hyeon-ji! Mozhaw

--

--

--

Whatisthis? it felt like something was pulling my leg. My hand tried to grab the surface, but I was drowning! I can't breathe.

"Yahkkkkk!!!" I woke up with panic with me.

Was that just a dream? my neck? I quickly felt my neck and strangely it was no longer painful.

I felt the rest of my body, and everything was still normal, not painful at all.

Still curious, I tried to stand up and re-examine my body. And sure enough, there was not the slightest hint of blue spot and pain left behind.

Finally I was able to breathe a sigh of relief and again sat on the wooden bed where I had previously woken up.

For a moment my eyes swept through the room and came to a halt on the shards of jugs strewn not far from me.

"Awhile..the jug?" I murmured hesitantly "did I not dream? I have drunk poison!" jerk me in shock "how is it possible...?"

"You're awake apparently?"

Someone opened the rickety door of this room and woke me from the daydream.

He's the old recluse I met in one of my dreams. In a moment, if he ever appeared in my dreams, it is not impossible if right now I am also dreaming. Right, I must be dreaming again.

"Calm yourself, Moon Gi Tae. You are now fully conscious and not dreaming" he said as if understanding my thoughts.

"If I don't dream, why am I here?" I have so many questions I want to ask him.

"It takes quite a long time to explain all this to you, but for now you have to go out and meet your friends first" he said gently in a grandfather's distinctive voice "they've been waiting for you for two days" he continued, keeping me awake.

"Two days? I slept for two days?"

"To be more precise, you are unconscious..."

Ah right, if I just fall asleep maybe I won't be that long.

--

When I came out of the small hut, I saw the princesses were splattered with their activities.

In a fairly roomy courtyard, I saw Na Yeong and Mozhawa cutting vegetables on a bale-bale with various types of tubers around them. Not far from there, Ji-hyeon is flicking through the rice she cooked on the fire stove. While in front of him, Sazhawa looks busy fixing the fireplace wood. Jeong Ra and Chu Yi were in charge of collecting the firewood that had been split apart. As for Chaeyun, Dayeon and also Mizhawa, they seemed to have just returned from somewhere.

"Moon Gi Tae...!" Chaeyun was the first to call me just after I walked out of the small room.

It turns out they're all here. Wait, are they worried about me?

"What else would make us do this if it wasn't for you?" Mizhawa answered a question that I had not been able to convey.

Ck...he's no fun, when am I given a chance to talk!

"That's because you just think about it and DON'T say it...!" move with laziness.

"You guys, can we talk like humans?" Sazhawa interrupted our abnormal chatter "and Gi Tae, we're not all Mizhawa who can hear your thoughts." he added.

"All right, I'm sorry for that. If only he didn't know my thoughts, then I'd asked him earlier.." I blame Mizhawa for this. Haha feel your own frustration.

Mizhawa looks upset and walks away, not forgetting to roll her eyes which actually look more sensual.

Oy, what am I thinking?!

"Are you better?" Na Yeong walked up to me and gently stroked my arm.

"Hummm, this is much better" I said as I returned Na Yeong's smile.

"Thank God, we're all worried about you, even Mizhawa can't fall asleep thinking about your situation!" continue with enthusiasm.

This made Mizhawa turn her body and look at Na Yeong sharply.

"really?" I was quite surprised to hear this fact.

"I never did that!" he concluded with anger.

"Easy-after... Na Yeong, you're always making things up.." lerai Ji-hyeon shook her head. I saw a motherly figure in a queen.

"But it's true~" his timps don't accept.

I can't believe I miss them. I miss their behavior like this.

"Oiya, I didn't see Hyujin from earlier...Where is she?" I asked this when I thought Hyujin was not in my eyes. Usually he's the first person who would upset me and ruin my mood.

But something was on their faces when I called Hyujin's name.

--

On this warm afternoon, Ji-hyeon asks all of us to gather at the cottage not far from where I am. And the old recluse's grandfather who came to me, I don't know where he's going at the moment.

It turned out that this is where they have been living for the past two days. Little do I know, the old man who provided this place for them.

"Drink first Gi Tae.." pinta Ji-hyeon after giving me a glass of water.

Since when have they been acting like this to me? I mean they're good sometimes, but it's rare for me to see Ji-hyeon or even anyone else serving me a drink in particular.

"Qc...! drink while we are good to you!" Mizhawa was upset to know my head.

Makes the others wonder at Mizhawa's behavior.

"Stop reading my mind! that bothers me so much...!" my timpals were upset with him. What can help, even I can't hide this thought from him.

Without prolonging the business, I immediately drank the water Ji-hyeon gave me until it ran out.

When I looked at the empty glass that was now in my hands, I again remembered the poison I had previously drunk. I haven't been able to explain the incident, but the old recluse's grandfather has gone somewhere.

I sighed deeply after thinking about it, along with me putting the wooden glass back on the table.

"Did anything bother you?" Mozhawa asked me.

I don't know their heads like Mizhawa's, but I can tell their faces say they're worried about me.

"I'm fine.there's nothing to worry about" I replied to calm them down.

I was quite amazed, this time Mizhawa did not interfere in the affairs of my head and just fell silent when he heard other facts.

"You know, you can tell us everything, because you are a part of us." Mozhawa said back to me. The more moved as the others nodded, obeying his sentence.

"Well..by the way, where's Hyujin?" ask me to go back to them.

"I thought you hated him? I can't believe you miss him too~" Jeong Ra teased me again. He knows exactly where my mistake lies.

"Even if I don't like him, but he's always with us. So it's a stark contrast when he's not around." I was looking for an excuse.

Mizhawa chuckled so little that it made me look sadistically at him.

After that, their faces turned cloudy and looked as if they were hiding something from me.

"Actually-" Ji-hyeon said something that immediately caught my attention "she can't be with us anymore." she continued hesitating.

"Well, he's not with us, so where is he?" to be honest, I was confused by what he said.

"She was injured quite badly while protecting all of us, and now she is already somewhere else" Na Yeong said with a look on her face?.

I also saw the others bowed sadly, as if holding back tears. What the hell's going on? where he went.

"Other place, where do you mean? did he go back to Kang Gu?" Kang Gu is his homeland, precisely Seongsu village. No wonder he was one of the good guys, because looking again, Kang Gu kingdom was famous for its good people.

"Gi Tae's... Min Hyujin is gone forever"

"Min Hyujin, go--" I silenced the heretic.

My heart, why is it that my heart is being beaten when Ji-hyeon says that. He must be lying, right? why make jokes like this?.

"Ji-hyeon, if you want to make a joke, don't take that line. Jeong Ra fits better with the joke by the way." I said awkwardly.

I stopped what I was doing when I saw Sazhawa couldn't hold back her tears. While others are still bowed and occasionally wipe the tears that drip.

Is that true? Hyujin... is she gone?

"Tap-but--how can it be?!" I was nervous and in disbelief.

"He risked his life while protecting us from exposure to the poisonous gas that came out along with the smoke of the snake monster bursts. Coupled with the clash of your energies, especially your energy..." Mizhawa who looks like she is not bothered by the circumstances, tries to explain it to me "the two energies you are expending create a terrible annihilation effect, whereas you have not been able to control it as a whole... and you know when your energies collide?" with questions at the end.

"Can it cause you to melt down?" I answered for a moment while thinking deeply.

"Fright! and Min Hyujin risked her life to make a huge dome for the rest of her energy to save us, including you"

Mizhawa actually said something that I find difficult to understand. If I save them, I still make sense of them, but save me? how-how?.

"Maybe invisible to you when you're focused on one thing. But we saw for ourselves, he gave you his shield of protection so that the heat you received at that time did not melt yourself." Mizhawa ended her sentence firmly.

Min Hyujin, he risked everything for us. He was a man willing to die to save the princesses. Why do I feel lost now. He was a nobody to me, but I lost a person who was like family.

Why do I only remember when he tried to keep smiling even though all I gave was hurtful words? when I was guilty of beating him, but he apologized to me? I haven't had time to fix all that. Why is he so fast to go!.

"That's why, you have to live for today.not yesterday" Dayeon, with all her sadness, managed to touch my worst place.

I'm sorry Min Hyujin...

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